Electroacupuncture improves gastrointestinal motility through a central-cholinergic pathway-mediated GDNF releasing from intestinal glial cells to protect intestinal neurons in Parkinson's disease rats

Constipation symptoms of Parkinson's disease (PD) seriously reduce the quality of life of patients and aggravate the development of the disease, but current treatment options still cannot alleviate the progress of constipation. Electroacupuncture (EA) is a new method for the treatment of constipation, which can effectively treat the symptoms of constipation in PD patients. However, the specific regulatory mechanisms of EA in the treatment of constipation symptoms in PD remain unclear. The aim of this study is to investigate the therapeutic effect of EA on PD constipation rats and its regulatory mechanism. A rotenone (ROT)-induced gastrointestinal motility disorder model was used to simulate the pathological process of constipation in PD. The results showed that EA could effectively promote gastrointestinal peristalsis, reduce α-synuclein accumulation in substantia nigra and colon and colonic injury in rats after ROT administration. Mechanistically, EA activation of the central-cholinergic pathway increases acetylcholine release in the colon. At the same time, EA up-regulated the co-expression of enteric glial cells (EGCs) and α7 nicotinic acetylcholine receptor (α7nAChR). EA increased the expression of choline acetyltransferase (ChAT), neuronal nitric oxide synthase (nNOS), and tyrosine hydroxylase (TH) in the colon of PD rats. Further mechanistic studies showed that EA increased the expression of glial cell-derived neurotrophic factor (GDNF), GFRa1 and p-AKT in colon tissues. The present study confirmed that EA upregulates α7nAChR through a central-cholinergic mechanism to promote GDNF release from EGCs, thereby protecting intestinal neurons and thereby improving gastrointestinal motility.

Constipation; Electroacupuncture; Enteric nervous system; GDNF/GFRa1/AKT signaling pathway; Parkinson's disease.